So It Begins
Setting In….
Dear Friends and Family,
We made it safely to the Ethnos360 Missionary Training Center!!!!! After so many bittersweet “see you laters”, we headed out on the 24 hour adventure of driving over two days, thankfully broken up by an overnight stay at the home of our friends’/fellow alumni of the Ethnos360 Bible School, the Manions! And, HERE WE ARE.....in Roach, Missouri!
Each day, we are tasting and seeing that the Lord is good!! We were greeted by our sweet host family, Dave and Laura Percy, who welcomed us to the Training Center with hugs, encouragement, delicious food, and our apartment stocked with snacks and some basic needs! God just keeps showing us His goodness repeatedly through the hands and feet of other believers, (including YOU, those who are reading this, our amazing support team!) as we take this leap of faith! AND let me tell ya, it sure has been a leap of faith!!!
Thankfully, God’s grace abounds even as we fall so short each day! Transitions and change are TOUGH and always seem to show Evan and I how truly NEEDY we are for our Lord Jesus Christ! Some things we have found to be most challenging in these last few weeks are:
Trusting God to provide for our practical needs, ministry needs and financial needs in order to be here at the Missionary Training Center! We are still at a total of about 35% of our monthly support raising, and we are trusting God to provide and getting creative with living simply! THANK YOUto all who have been lifting us up in prayer and supporting this ministry financially! We cannot even begin to put into words how much it is an answer to our prayers for God to raise up a ministry team committed, with Jesus’ strengthening, to see an unreached people group reached with the Gospel!
Trusting God to grow us spiritually and in our marriage throughout our training here at MTC as we desire to put Him first in all things!
Trusting that God is going to help us build relationships with the other missionaries in training and to serve one another/pour into each other's lives as we all prepare for lives of ministry overseas!
One of the most encouraging aspects of being at the MTC is that God has blessed us incredibly with the opportunity to be a TEAM in this ministry as husband and wife! We are loving being in classes together and getting to talk over all we are learning at the lunch and dinner table! We even get to work out together in the morning’s before class!
As we completed our first week of training, we have already been challenged in so many ways! First and foremost, we were reminded right away that the whole reason we are here is because of our Savior, Jesus Christ and that our ministry must flow from a vibrant dependence on Him alone for everything! I (Chelsey) will be honest, that with the craziness of moving halfway across the country, my stubborn heart has found it hard to yield to, abide in, and depend on my Savior, which makes no sense because these times are when I need Him most! God spoke into this, as we were reminded on Day 1 of orientation to fix our eyes on Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith, and allow Him to sustain and lead!
As we completed our first week of training, we have already been challenged in so many ways! Our first classes discussed the character qualities a missionary should have and reflected on qualities where we would like to see personal growth during training. We looked at the BIG PICTURE of tribal church planting! We talked at length about what we think a “maturing church that glorifies God” should look like, as this is the end goal of tribal church planting! And my goodness, is this overwhelming! The document that laid out the church planting timeline was 29 pages long!! Yet, God seems to keep tapping Evan and I on the shoulder and whispering, “Yes, its overwhelming! It’s supposed to be! I am humbling you, exposing your weaknesses, bringing you to your knees in greater dependence, showing you your inability apart from my Holy Spirit’s enabling!”. Thank you, gracious God! We’re hearing you and we are listening!
All this to say, God is on the MOVE and its only WEEK ONE! Each week of the training consists of about 45 work week hours (including classes, ‘work detail’ where we help keep the campus running-Evan is assigned to upkeeping the grounds and I do custodial work), team/personal mentoring, and homework!), so we have jumped right into our full-time hours! As the road ahead shows itself to be both humbling and exciting, we cannot help but run to Jesus with it all! We pray deeply that you are running to Him with all that life brings you each day! Let’s run to Him together!